Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Sauteed and salted chili are my all time favorite with samosa; I do have them as a side dish with rice, especially with curd rice. My grand mother used to have raw chili's with curd rice, I tried it too, but it didn't work that great because, I started to see tears in my eyes, you could imagine how spicy it would be. But do not worry, here is the simple recipe with less spice.

Ingredients:

Long Red chili (I used Finger chili)- 5

Lemon juice 1tbsp

salt to taste

oil 4tbsp

Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Slit chili along length wise on one side, remove seed if you wish, add very little amount of salt in the slit. Add them to the hot oil and saute them till they turn medium brown. Remove them from the pan and sprinkle some lime juice on top of it. There you go, spicy and tangy chili are ready to serve. Hope you enjoy my recipe, please do not forget to comment on the post and keep visiting!!!! :)

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Tandoori chicken is always my hubby's favorite snack. I prepare this for every special event in my house. This time I want to try something different but I do not want to disappoint him, by not making tandoori chicken. So, I tried keeping the tandoori taste same but wrapped it in a puff pastry and he liked it very much. It not only tasted wonderful but also looked like something that a professional chef presents. He was so surprised to learn that I made it. My love and bond for cooking is very strong, and getting very intense that it is making me very professional everyday. If I were allowed to do something other than studies, then I would immediately take spoon in one hand to cook and camera in one hand to capture frame to frame of my recipes and share with you all. My passion for cooking and photography is that zealous.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Semiya Payasam (Kheer), was all time favorite for me to cook, because it is simple and delicious. I prepare this yummy payasam for my hubby, he is not-so-sweet tooth but loves this payasam. Dry fruits are very healthy as they provide instant energy along with good fats and proteins. So, I always try to combine dry fruits with almost all the sweet dishes I prepare. We all know that eating sweets is unhealthy, so I substitute 1/4th of the payasam with all the dry fruits that I have and make it little healthy.

I always keep dry fruits handy, you can find them in the candy section of every grocery store. This pack shown below was bought from Sam's club. It costs about $7.00, and it was enough for 6months at least for both of us. It got raisins, almonds, cashew nuts, dry mango, dry banana, dry coconut strips, dry pine apple (one of my favourite) and many more fruits. The only thing that biased me with this pack is that, each fruit is coated with sugar, next time I'll make sure that I'll buy non-sugar coated dry fruits.

Heat ghee in a thick bottom pan under medium flame. Add dry fruits and semiya and roast it till the semiya turns light brown. Add 1/2cup water and 3cups milk. Adding water first will protect the milk from sticking to the pan. Now, cook this mixture till it comes to a boil and add sugar and mix well. when the sugar is completely dissolved add cardamom powder and turn off the stove. Let it remain for about 5min on the heat from the turn off stove. If you like your payasam thick then add leas milk or substitute 3 cups of milk with 1cup condensed milk + 2cups of regular milk. Serve hot and enjoy with your family.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Last week we had a small potluck party. I was very excited, like everyone does to impress them. The time was short and I did a lot of browsing to search for any Indian potluck recipe. But, I could not find many and the one that I found were taking pretty long time to cook. So, I stopped browsing and looked around my kitchen to find what all I have. If you are preparing for a potluck you have to make in a large portions (of course, our potluck gathering was very small, but what if it was bigger?) just look around your kitchen and find the one that is in larger quantity and you many not use it again (Such as instant cake flour), and try to prepare from that. If you are a person like me who prefer to make desserts only on special occasions then I bet you should have lots and lots of instant mixes like gulab jamun and cake mix in your store room. Just move their butts out and start making them.

Now here are the tips that you can make the simple food look delicious. Always, garnish food with colorful decorations. These decorations make food even more appitizing. If you are going to bake the food, always prepare them before the party day, refrigerate them and try to bake them before the party begins. If you were to take them to different place then, bake on the day before you leave.

Here are the recipes that you can prepare for the potluck or Big party.